The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3817, 9 October 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1883.

The reorganisation of tho Ci\ r il Service is AA'hat successive Now Zealand Governments have been always going to do, but AA'hich has never been accomplished. The task, besides being distasteful to any Administration, is beset with difficulties. It is lintnr.illy distasteful as being calculated to raise up a host of political enemies ; it is beset Avith difficulties, as without tho greatest caro tho public sorvico would suffer. Perhaps in the interests of tbe public servants the public service is made to appear a much more delicate pieco of machinery than it really is. At the same time it is obA-ious to every one that the pruning knife cannot be used rashly without evil results. But tbe fear of using the knife at all has increased year by year Avith the growth of the Civil Service, and it becomes necessarily more difficult and more dangerous to use as that groAvth continues. No one denies that the Civil Sendee is an immense political pOAver, having- its ramifications throughout the colony, and capable of turning any Ministry out of offico if exerted towards that direction. It may therefore be presumed that an Administration finds it more convenient to talk of economy and reorganisation than to put into practice such cardinal points of its policy. At the close of this last session of Parliament it was announced that Ministers were about to carry out their intention to reorganise the Civil Service. Tho announcement was hailed Avith satisfaction, and those avlio put faith in statements of this kind belicA'cd that amends Avould be made in the recess for the hurried Avork of an impatient Parliament. Should nothing be done, should the pruning knife be allowed to rust in its sheath, tbe resignation of the Premier, and the reconstruction of the Ministry, Avill offer the required excuse. The most determined effort, the one nt least that ap2ieared most genuine, was made in 1880, Avhen a Royal Commission Avas appointed to enquire into tho stato of tho Civil Service with a view to its radical reorganisation. Tho Timaru Herald thus tells tho story:—"The Commission only had time to investigate fully tho condition of one department, namely tho Raihvay Department; but in their report they indicated very plainly the lines upon AA'hich reforms should be instituted Avith reference to that and all other departments. The session arrived before they bad had half time to finish their Avork; but what they did they did thoroughly, and there was no question that, if they Avere alloAved to go on, they Avould most effectually reform the Civil Service. But what did the Government do ? They repudiated all responsibility for the Commission's report; thoy abandoned the Crmmissioncrs to furious political attack; and they declined tc alloAV the enquiry to bo continued. After tho session, it is true, they timidly and in a halfhearted Avny acted on some of tho Commissioners' recommendations concerning the Railway Department; but it is doubtful whether they really did moro than thoy Avould have been compelled to do in any case by the pressure of circumstance. In short, they merely used the Commission in order to avert from themsclvos the unpopularity of making certain necessary changes. The CiA'il Service, as a Avholo, tlicy left entirely untouched ; neither did they in any Avny reform the system cvon in the Railway Department. Thoy next took a most extraordinary step. They appointed two superannuated officials, Mr Seed and Mr Batkin, as Commissioners, to travel all over the colony, inspecting the Government offices, and to report as to the best means of reforming tho Civil Service. Mr Seed and Mr Batkin, wo need hardly say, are just the sort of officials Avliom a genuine reform would improve off the face of the country, or at all events off the payshcets of the Treasury. They have, moreover, been so long in lucrative berths high up in the service, that they have got their sons, and sons-iu-IaAV, and nephews, and cousins, and relatives to tbe third and fourth generation, snugly billeted on the colony in one department or another; and there _is scarcely an official of any standing Avhom thoy have not either a prejudice against or a partiality for. It Avould scarcely be possible to hit on two moro unfit men for the task of drawing up a scheme of Civil Service reform. Yet thoso Averc the men Avhom the Government deliberately selected for that task. There was a loud and unanimous expression of public opinion against the appointment, and, indeed, against tho Avhole project; and, in the end, though the Commissioners spent months travelling about in great state at tho public cost, nothing Avhatcver came of the enquiry. The Ministry refused to lay the Seed and Rafkin report before and nobody ever got an inkling of Avhat it contained. Tbe whole affair was justly denounced as a gross job, and from that day to this nothing more has been heard of it. Last session Major Atkinson declared it was impossible to reduce the departmental expenditure ; but invited the House _to adopt a scheme for re-organizing the Civil Service. That Avas in the Financial Statement ; but not a word Avas ever said about the matter afterwards. The Government never laid any scheme before Parliament, or ever allowed them an opportunity pi discussing tho subject; but Avh.cn individual Members raised the question in Committee on the Estimates, the Government treated their protests as obstruction, forced tho votes through in lump sums by sitting up all night, and ca'cii insisted on increasing the salaries. Noav we are asked to bclicA-o they are intent on reforming tho CiA-il Service on their oavii responsibility. A nice sort of reform it will bo,' we should say."